Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles now have signed copies of my book of poetry "The Plum in Mr. Blum's Pudding." It has been selling there consistently and I want to thank the staff at the store for presenting this book in a magnificent manner. If you want a signed copy, go there, or they can ship it to you as well. Their phone number is (213) 988-7413.
Their website is Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
Signed TOSH: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World at ARTBOOK @ Hauser & Wirth in the Arts District, Los Angeles. 213-988-7413 - call or go to the store to pick a copy up. They also do shipping.
Les Sewing Sisters' new album will be released on July 23rd and we will do our live streaming show on July 30th!
An online tête-à-tête between Tosh Berman and poet-auteurs Dennis Cooper, Benjamin Weissman, and Amy Gerstler about their so-called poet-gang, the special friendships formed by the L.A. literati in the early 1980s, being influenced by the French (i.e. literary hauntedness), and the specific problems and pleasantries of poetic programming.
In this three-part online interview series, Tosh Berman writer, poet, Los Angeles publisher of the post-war French literati, and beloved host of the 1980s Tea With Tosh, returns to the screen to confabulate with figures from the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center's haunted hallways. Summoned to Berman's virtual sofa are a host of poetic voices, each of whom have been central to the center's programs at a point between 1980 and 1986. Not merely interviews, Beyond Baroque is equal parts séance, chat show, reunion, literary production, past life regression, tea time, no nostalgia.
To RSVP and other info here: RSVP & more info here!
Emmanuelle 8 (part five, and the last episode) by Tosh Berman.
LES SEWING SISTERS ALBUM RELEASE
Friday, July 23, 2021, is the release date for the first Les Sewing Sisters album Les Sewing Sisters on vinyl (Lun*na Music, EZ-039), Bandcamp, iTunes Store, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Spotify. The album is produced by Adam Lee Miller (ADULT.) and Lun*na Menoh. Recorded in Detroit and Los Angeles.
Les Sewing Sisters are Lun*na Menoh and Saori Mitome. You hear on Les Sewing Sisters noise from sewing machines fine-tuned via computer and the human voice. There are no guitars, drums, synths - just voices and the beautiful sound of the sewing machine. Lun*na and Saori looked back to the industrial age when the sewing machine came into existence and looked onward to making the ‘now’ sound of Les Sewing Sisters. Lun*na first started using her sewing machines as an instrument when she did a version of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero performed and premiered at the sold out Valaslavasay Panorama in 2016. Les Sewing Sisters opened up for the band Sparks in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, they did the Les Sewing Sisters home tour, where they did 22 performances in people’s closet space. Lun*na also has a documentary film, “Who Is Lun*na Menoh?” directed by Jeff Mizushima, which won the best documentary film award at CAAMFEST 2021.
After releasing the nine-song album Les Sewing Sisters, there will be a live streaming show on Friday, July 30, 2021. More information will follow.
The songs on the album Les Sewing Sisters:
Every song lyric by Les Sewing Sisters is about clothing, sewing, making clothes, wearing clothes, and fashion. All songs written by Lun*na Menoh.
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The album has been released for a year now, and still, I just now got the vinyl edition of Bob Dylan's Rough and Rowdy Ways. Without a doubt, this is my favorite Dylan album. I'm in the school of Dylan admirers but not a full-strength fanatic fan. Some of his recordings I can hear once, and that's enough. However, Rough and Rowdy Ways is a different type of work compared to his other albums. I feel it may have taken him 79 years to make a record like this collection of songs. What appeals to me, of course, are his words, which are masterful with the remarkable juxtaposition of images thrown together like a master bartender.
For the past twenty years, the sound of Dylan's recordings has become more fascinating to me. Admittedly, they remind me of old recordings from the 1940s and 50s, but that is an illusion. Dylan, if nothing else, is the master illusionist behind the red velvet curtain. The design work on the record label itself is a throwback to another era, but it's more of a memory or a Twilight Zone episode. There is something scary, eerie, odd when you listen to the record while thinking of the album's design work. Sometimes his images don't work for me, but I think he does think these things out, and I don't believe they are thrown together in such a state. Anyone who has an announcer saying "Columbia Recording Artist Bob Dylan" before appearing on the stage is a very well-thought-out song and dance man.
The first five songs on this album are one of the great sequencings of music. "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" breaks the mood for me a bit, and it's OK where it is placed on the record, but I adore the soft balladry of songs like "My Own Version of You" and "I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You." At 79 (at the time of the recordings - I think), Dylan is a superb crooner. The band behind him is excellent, and the ambient touches of space allow the blending of instruments behind Dylan's voice is simply magnificent.
The track that leaves no prisoners behind is, of course, "Murder Most Foul." It almost feels like a separate afterthought or a bonus cut on an album. At the very least, an excellent B-side is the longest Dylan song ever recorded, yet it only seems a few minutes while listening to "Murder Most Foul." I'm an American of a certain age, and the death of Kennedy has numerous layers of feelings and dread, and this song captures that angst, fear, and the dark humor of the assassination. Nothing to laugh about, except it's absurd in such a classic American manner. Somehow Dylan brings up the feelings I had when I was nine, and Kennedy died. It was a cultural turning point, and some who are still here can feel that day on November 22, 1963. Without hesitating, this is clearly Dylan's best album.
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I have been looking for the vinyl of this album for quite a while now. Novi is a Jazz vocal quartet from Poland. I have two albums by them. One is Vocal Jazz From Poland 1965-75, and the other is this masterpiece recording Novi Sing Chopin. For at least two years, I have been trying to locate this album in the United States, and finally, it shows up in yesterday's mail. Since then, I have been looking at this cover, not fully believing that I got this precious item in my house. Then I put it on my turntable - pure bliss.
I love Chopin's melodies. I knew his name, of course, but in reality, I first heard his music through Serge Gainsbourg's Lemon Incest. It took me a few years to realize that Gainsbourg 'borrowed' the melody for his magnificent record. Then came Jack Nitzsche's album of Chopin music, which is also a favorite of mine. And now I have and love Novi Sing Chopin. However, there is something perverse when I only listen to Chopin through a pop or jazz context. That, I can't explain why?
My knowledge of Novi is limited. They are from Poland and were formed in Warsaw in 1964. All their recordings are from the Polish label Polskie Nagrania Muza, except for their compilation Vocal Jazz From Poland 1965-75 came out on a German record label. The four members of Novi are Bernard Kawka, Ewa Wanat, Janusz Mych, and Ryszard Szeremeta. The entire album is their four vocals, with an occasional stand-up bass, but played so lightly it's almost an ambient sound. It's really a beautiful blending of vocals with heart-wrenching melodies. There is a 20th mid-century vibe, and one can close their eyes and think of themselves in a John Lautner architectural home, with a nearby wet bar. That is a surface visual reference, but the music on the album burns the essence of the purity of the melodies. For me, a perfect album.
In the 1980s I did 22 episodes of "Tea With Tosh." I imagine myself being a combination of William F. Buckley and Dick Cavett. But geared for housewives in the afternoon. That was my mind set at the time. I interviewed everyone from Philip Glass to Bruce Conner to Russ Tamblyn, people from Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center to Tom Recchion and beyond. I also interviewed my future wife Lun*na Menoh. Basically this is how we met.
You can see all 22 episodes of "Tea With Tosh" here:
My father Wallace Berman was friends with the poet Piero Heliczer. Funny enough I was researching old Little Caesar journals (published by Dennis Cooper) this morning for a project I'm working on for the Hammer Museum. I came upon an issue devoted to Piero's work in that journal. Nevertheless, by accident (do they really happen?) I found this post card art by Wallace sent to Piero. My dad eventually did a book cover for Piero as well. So, Wallace Berman art sent to Piero Heliczer.
Something is compelling as one listens to Jack Nitzsche's arrangements. The romantic sweep is close to rapture or listening to Wagner, yet in essence, it's teenage music. The sexual feelings are mixed with the grandness of the strong bass and sweeping/weeping strings. If you put this record on a turntable and played it for me, without seeing the album cover or telling me who it is, I would know it's the work of Jack Nitzsche.
The Reprise Singles 1963-1965 captures the height of Nitzsche's approach to music. A grand gesture of strong emotional ties to the essence of love, mixed with a masochist's touch for a painful endearing relationship with a questionable muse. In a nutshell, this is music that could have inspired Nik Cohn and Guy Peellaert's Rock Dreams.
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